Red Flag #4: Dismantled Reproductive Rights and Access to Care Globally  

Red Flag #4:
Dismantled Reproductive Rights and Access to Care Globally

At a time when the U.S. should be championing access to care and international health and human rights standards, the Trump administration has done the opposite. President Trump has withdrawn from key international institutions, cut critical foreign aid for health care, and aligned the U.S. with authoritarian regimes on anti-rights positions. His regressive policies have jeopardized global health, gender equality, and human rights with devastating effects on access to reproductive care for marginalized communities around the world.

• Concerned about the lives and health of people across the globe? The Trump administration has gutted funding that kept millions of people healthy and safe and contributed to economic stability worldwide, with disastrous consequences for reproductive health.

• Within days of taking office, President Trump reinstated the “Global Gag Rule,” also known as the “Mexico City Policy.” This harmful and regressive policy prohibits U.S. foreign aid for organizations that provide, counsel, or advocate for legal abortion services—regardless of local laws or non-U.S. funding sources for that work. The Global Gag Rule is a significant setback for global health and is estimated to impact over $12 billion in health assistance. An increase in unsafe abortions, devastating outcomes for maternal health, and reduced access to contraception are expected as a result of the Rule.
• The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Department of State have also dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which countries have relied on for decades for essential reproductive health services, including family planning, maternal care, and HIV prevention. With President Trump’s blessing, this action has endangered the health and lives of millions worldwide. According to the Guttmacher Institute’s calculations, more than 12,000,000 women and girls have been denied contraceptive care because of the foreign aid funding freeze.

• Care about protecting human rights? President Trump has aligned the U.S. with authoritarian regimes in favor of anti-rights positions and is poised to stop tracking countries’ violations of reproductive rights.

• During the first days of President Trump’s return to the White House, the State Department announced its commitment to rejoin the so-called “Geneva Consensus Declaration,” an anti-reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ political statement championed by the previous Trump administration and signed by authoritarian governments. The Geneva Consensus Declaration intentionally misrepresents itself as an official international agreement and attempts to undermine the broad legal basis for reproductive rights as human rights. 
• Meanwhile, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and other international bodies that are essential for setting global health standards and protecting reproductive rights around the world.
• Public reporting indicates that the State Department is preparing to release its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, and plans to omit critical information on reproductive rights. If the new reports are completely devoid of analysis regarding the state of reproductive health and rights around the world as leaked documents suggest, this would signal clear disregard for women and girls.